To Find A New Purpose

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Closed to Zack Blaze. All bunnies approved.

It had been several months since the incident with mother dearest and my jackass brother that saw everything that I had worked so hard to build up go down in a screaming, fiery pile of ashes. It had been a peaceful, if not slightly boring three years standing behind the counter of the Janus Street Bookstore. But now...

I lost everything in the fire. Not just my livelihood, but everything upstairs; everything that I was working towards in secret. My alchemic ingredients and experiments, my rare tomes filled with potentially dangerous and forbidden knowledge, notebooks exploding with with scientific scrawling... All gone, at the whims of two utter douchebags dropping by to say "hi".

No amount of expletives could describe the fury and rage flowing through me at the loss.

I spent these past several months in a lethargic stupor, hiding in plain sight within the monstrous city of Radasanth, taking small jobs here and there and making just enough to pay for a room to crash in and some ale to fill my belly with. All that time, I was both wondering where to go from here and not wanting to continue on.

It was about a week ago that I finally pushed myself into action.

To be specific, it was a daydream that kicked me out of my funk. I was wasting time at a coffee house, pencil hard against a page in a fresh notebook, when I absentmindedly doodled a steel colossus three times the height of an average man, squishing Lucas Freebird underfoot. A giant metal hand crushed the skull of my mother whilst the second arm, equipped with a flamethrower, torched the mansion I grew up in. It was a cute little fantasy, sure. But as I set the pencil down and took a hard look at the drawing, the more it appealed to me.

See, I had always been enamored with alchemy and science. Most of my personal library reflected that; various studies and experiments published by alchemasters, tales and schematics describing the various mechanical creations of those geniuses in Alerar, and the like. I even had a few volumes under lock and key that contained more occult theories and experiments.

I pushed that idea out of my head, though. The time, resources, experimentation, angry mobs, and other potential hazards involved with making such a dream a reality far outweighed the potential payoff. If I simply wanted my family dead that bad, I'd find a way to have their water supply poisoned or set up a tragic accident involving one of the gargoyles that sit perched above the front door. The steel gargantuan would remain nothing more than a power fantasy--and the Thayne know that there's enough people running around on this planet who harbor one or two of their own.

But my interest in alchemy had been rekindled. My skills as an assassin were a bit on the rusty side, which ruled a return to that profession out. Perhaps I could become an apprentice to one of the alchemasters here in the city. But first, I had to hit the books and do my homework.

The Radasanth Grand Library, where I once held down a part time job at the front desk and as an overdue collections agent (which I was very good at, to no one's surprise), was where I had camped out for the past few days. I had a few friends sniffing around for possible apprenticeships and jobs for me while I boned up on some of the more advanced methods. You know, like the exact temperature you should boil toad fat at when you mix in the false parasol paste in order to make a more effective poison base.

I can imagine the absurdity of the sight. There I sit, in the middle of the vast library's main reading room, with dozens up on dozens of books piled haphazardly on the table around me like a little wall that blocked out the rest of the world, my pencil furiously skritching against the paper as I wrote down formulas and ingredient lists, pausing only to open up another notebook and hastily write more notes and other nuggets of information that I suddenly recalled from my previous studies.

[Zack Blaze]

"Excuse me," a hushed voice carried with the air, "I'm looking for someone named Madison Freebird. Heard she's a librarian, do you have any information on her?" Zack's voice remained whispered, though the hint of feminity mixed with his typical soft sounding nature caused the youth to be louder than he meant. A few sporadic 'shush'es here and there caused a light embarrassment in the street fighter, though the emotion was never reflected on his person. Zack was very good at hiding his true feelings, as well as his ulterior motives. Ulterior motives that involved finding a skilled alchemist.

In the past few weeks, Zack Blaze had been commissioned by a group called Misery Business to perform various tasks. Though he had never met with the leader of the group, his charge would always manage to have another assignment for the boy as soon as he finished the last one. While Zack didn't like the concept of working under another person, the money paid well enough, and they never asked the teen to do anything too strenuous. In fact, locating this Madison Freebird person was perhaps the hardest thing that the organization had asked of him so far. That was probably why he had felt the need to search every library he could find to locate her; it showed at least some effort on his part.

The person Zack had been talking to, a balding man with green eyes holding some ancient looking brown tome, shook his head. The youth sighed as waved his hand up and down, palm facing the sky. As he played with an imaginary ball only he could see, Zack thought about his next step. Radasanth was home to several libraries, and this girl could be in any of them. Furthermore, because none of the damn places seem to have a particular dress code, the amateur mime found himself asking all manner of people about this Freebird girl. Biting the lower part of his lip, Zack nodded in appreciation, and moved on to the next person.

A girl with either too much time on her hands, or a book tower enthusiast sat at an oak table, scratching something down on paper. Zack coughed a little to try and get the females attention, only to be ignored by the writer and shushed by the crowd. Frustration began to bubble in the boy's body, and he leaned down a little bit, hands grabbing the corner of the paper and slightly tugging, causing the black haired girl's pencil to sprawl downwards. She now looked up from her studies, an anger of sorts bubbling in her eyes as she looked at him. Zack bowed slightly, a smile on his face from both infuriating the girl and finally getting her attention.

"Excuse me, my name is Zack Blaze. I'm looking for a girl by the name of Madison Freebird," Zack looked around for a moment, waiting to be quieted by the crowd once more. When no such warnings came, the man continued, careful to continue using the same whisper-like tone so as not to disturb anybody further. "If you have any information on her, I'd greatly appreciate it. Misery Business is quite interested in talking to her."

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I was hard at work, copying various formulas from one of the several open books in front of me.

Ingredients:
2 tsp. diluted wormwort sap
4 healthy pinches of crystalized tree frog poison (pro tip: wear gloves)
3 tsp. finely-ground elven bone marrow
One crushed feather from a--

I snapped back to reality when my notebook shifted forward several inches, causing my ingredients list to appear as if I had a sudden fit of madness. I set my pen down on the table, trying to keep my irritation in check. It wouldn't be good for me to cause a scene at this library; I was starting to run out of options here in Radasanth, as I was finding myself welcome less and less at the majority of these establishments around the city. As it turns out, not very many librarians here like it when patrons horde all of the books in one particular subject for days on end, only to leave and have one or two books come up... missing.

I took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. I looked up and shot my interrupter a stern look. He was a young thing--not quite a boy, but not yet a man. His light blonde hair was spiked in a manner that implied that he just said screw it about halfway through, and his rather bright green eyes stared at me inquisitively. A similarly-green leather jacket covered his torso. A faint, sweet odor filled my nostrils... Peaches? ...Really? Yes, I was certain that was it. Peaches.

Well, alright, then.

I yanked my notebook out of the dainty hands of the youth. Closing the pages, I mulled over what he had said to me. "Misery Business is quite interested in talking to her." Misery Business? That's not a group I've ever heard of; not in the circles that I've moved around in, anyway. A bunch of young upstarts thinking they could snag some A-list thugs and take the back alleys by storm? Another shadowy organization that's all hush-hush and daggers in the dark, picking off the enemies of the powerful for a few coins?

I regarded the youth with a blank stare that hid my curiosity. I had ruled out that this Misery Business was a group of people who wanted me dead for some reason; seeing as I had left all of my gear at my apartment and I was buried deep within a stack of books and research notes, this boy was at an advantage. I could've been dead several times over before I had a chance to trip him up with the delyn wires that I always kept hidden beneath the sleeves of my shirt.

I folded my arms on the table in front of me and, against my better judgment, said, "I'm Madison Freebird. I'm also a little busy right now, as you can see." I waved a hand at the messy stack of old tomes that littered the table. "What do you want?"

[Zack Blaze]

Zack blinked, stunned by how great his luck was. The first person he talked to turned out to be the exact person he was looking for. Madison sat across from him, looking rather impatient in waiting for his reply. Shaking the proverbial cobwebs out of his head, Zack started up his speech. “Well, like I said, my name is Zack Blaze and I represent Misery Business.”

The youth looked around for a moment, grabbing a nearby chair and pulling it towards him to sit down. “We’re a company that’s quite interested in your talents. We’ve actually had a couple of agents following you for quite a while, ever since that incident of yours.” Zack looked the girl directly in the eyes, sensing her faux confusion. “You know what I mean,” Zack spoke, snapping his fingers and causing a small spark, like that of a bad lighter. The change in Madison’s demeanor (from confused to what appeared to be a small scowl) seemed to suggest that she had dropped her act.

“Anyways,” Zack’s tone got a little lower, his eyes shifting around to make sure nobody but Madison could hear, “We’re not here to criticize. In fact, my superiors think you did some good work with that whole thing. But mostly we’re interested in your potential as a scientist.” Zack looked around suspiciously once more, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a book, which he then sat on the table and slid to Madison.

The book itself was quite old, with some ancient markings on it. The pages within seemed as though they could tear away with a single gust of wind, and some of the ink was a bit faded. Luckily, there were pictures, several herbs and maps of their locations, as well as what seemed to be an ingredients list from the way the items seemed to be organized.

“I got this on one of my adventures,” Zack explained, “back when Underwood saw me as some sort of hero. In truth, I can’t understand most of this, only the back pages that tells of how to control a demon. I can vouch for the authenticity, as I’ve got an ogre waiting in Concordia, forced to listen to whatever I tell him. We at Misery Business figure that if anyone had the potential to decipher some of this stuff in this tome, and use it to our benefit, it’s you, Miss Freebird.”

As Zack spoke, a random, unremarkable person walked by, forcing the sweet smelling teen to keep quiet for a moment. Zack’s eyes followed this person until he was out of earshot, his green orbs once again focusing back on Madison. “We can provide you with a lab and all the science equipment you need, as long as you agree to help us figure some of this stuff out. Sound good?”

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I greedily snatched the ancient tome from Zack and slid it in front of me on the table. It was heavy with dust, decaying binding glue and secrets. I took care to flip through a few of the pages, so the book wouldn't disintegrate before eyes. The text was faded in parts, completely missing in others, and every word written in a script that I didn't recognize. However, the pictures were quite numerous and telling; it was as if the scribes of this archive of arcane knowledge were planning on passing it on to illiterates.

"Impressive find," I admitted to the blond as I continued to gingerly thumb through the pages. The current pictures I was looking at denoted instructions on how to properly mix Whitaker's oil and black mamba paste in an alchemical oven without releasing incredibly toxic fumes. "I'm going to assume that your... Misery Business, you called it? ...I'm going out on a limb here, but I assume that your superiors have been keeping tabs on me for quite a while."

Zack cracked a sly grin and nodded. "Ever since your little campaign against the tavern down the street from your old bookstore that gave you food poisoning. So, about a year, now."

"Hm," I replied nonchalantly.

"Did the owner ever recover from that?"

"Probably not," I mused. "He's probably still buried deep in the sick wards."

"Ah."

We spent several minutes in silence, as the patrons of the library continued to stir around us. The librarians scurried about the floor, putting books back in their respective places and shushing anyone who could be heard above the fluttering of papers and clicking of boots on the hard, polished floor.

I slid a scrap of paper in between two pages, closed the book, and eyed Zack. In hushed tones I said, "I'm going to hazard a guess. I don't really have much of a choice in this matter. This is one of those 'we've followed you all this time, and have already chosen you to become one of us' deals."

Zack, wearing the same smile on his handsome face, said nothing.

"Hm," I sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you what. If what you offer is true--and given the rarity and contents of this particular book you brought me I have no reason to believe otherwise--then I'd be a fool to pass up this opportunity."

"Ah, perfect!" Zack rose from his chair, scuffing the feet of it against the floor.

"Please, I'm not done." I motioned for Zack to sit back down in his chair. He politely did so. "I need to be perfectly honest here, though. I can help you decipher the secrets of this book, but the script is entirely foreign to me. However--" I cracked open the tome, revealing the pages that I marked with the scrap of paper. On them were several maps and drawings of various fungi and mosses. "I do recognize these alchemical ingredients right here, and I think I can accurately guess what the outcome of this recipe will be. But, they're high rare on the market and it would take forever to acquire them through my normal channels."

I slammed my finger down on the map, which was a zoomed-in drawing of the northwestern reaches of Concordia. Zack leaned in closer, making a theatrical effort to observe the faded ink scribblings. "This is the natural habitat of the fungi and moss I'd need to make this mixture. If my memory serves me correctly, this gorge is roughly a day's walk from a little village called Harper's Pass."

Zack leaned back in his chair, waving a hand dismissively. "We could easily acquire the ingredients for you, Ms. Freebird."

"No," I replied curtly. "While I'm sure you could, I'm not interested in you proving how deep your pockets are. I wish to see what your Misery Business is actually capable of. I'll take this book and have the recipe translated by an archivist friend of mine--if that's fine with you, of course. And in return, I want you to scope out this area. Learn the geography. Find out any dangers that may lie in the area. That part of Concordia is not one I'm terribly familiar with. I can meet you at Harper's Pass in a week, if that's fine."

The blond cocked his head ever-so-slightly to the side. "What're you getting at?"

I lightly closed the book and folded my arms across the cracked leather cover. "I want to go on a little excursion into the depths of Concordia to retrieve the ingredients myself. It'll be easier that way for me, and quicker for you. Also, I want you to accompany me on the journey. I'm certain by that time, I'll have plenty more questions about this Misery Business business. And I want to make sure that I won't be wasting my time by working with you. So, I think we both have something to prove to each other, hmm?"

Rising from my chair and sliding Zack's tome under my arms, I made my way out of the library. "And bring that ogre with you. I'd like to see it for myself. And maybe it'll come in handy."